The United States is cutting off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for failing to put an end to the numerous migrant caravans that are overwhelming the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We were paying them tremendous amounts of money,” President Donald Trump said on Friday. “And we’re not paying them anymore. Because they haven’t done a thing for us. They set up these caravans.”
“At the Secretary’s instruction, we are carrying out the President’s direction and ending FY 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle,” a State Department spokesperson said, according to CNN. “We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.”
Mexico Daily News reported on Wednesday that Mexican Federal Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero said that the “mother of all caravans” was forming in Honduras and that it contains an estimated 20,000 people.
Obama-era DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said this week that the situation on the southern border is so dire that “we are truly in a crisis.”
“On Tuesday there were 4,000 apprehensions,” Johnson said. “I know that 1,000 overwhelms the system and I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like.”
A separate report from this week found that if the “current rates of Catch and Release, border crossings, and visa overstays pan out,” then the U.S. will add nearly 1.5 million illegal aliens to the population this year.
CNN reported this last week that data they obtained from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) showed that the number of unaccompanied minors arriving at the southern border “is expected to surpass the levels during the 2014 unaccompanied minor crisis.”
The crisis has exploded in scope since Democrats forced an exemption into the massive omnibus spending bill that was passed in February that prohibited “DHS from detaining or deporting a sponsor, potential sponsor, or household member of an unaccompanied minor.”
Trump has repeatedly slammed Democrats and Mexico over the last few days for the ongoing crisis on the southern border.
“Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA,” Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon. “Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!”
“It would be so easy to fix our weak and very stupid Democrat inspired immigration laws,” Trump added. “In less than one hour, and then a vote, the problem would be solved. But the Dems don’t care about the crime, they don’t want any victory for Trump and the Republicans, even if good for USA!”
“The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S. Therefore, CONGRESS MUST CHANGE OUR WEAK IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW, & Mexico must stop illegals from entering the U.S through their country and our Southern Border,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “Mexico has for many years made a fortune off of the U.S., far greater than Border Costs. If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week. This would be so easy for Mexico to do, but they just take our money and ‘talk.’ Besides, we lose so much money with them, especially when you add in drug trafficking etc.), that the Border closing would be a good thing!”